Announcement: We’re trying something different here —
Introducing “Perspectives”, a new reoccurring feature in which I will publish regular short-form pieces inspired around a central theme. I’ll be sharing this content alongside my regular long(ish)-form posts across the earth, hearth, voyage and musings categories. The Perspectives feature will be a place to share my forays into the world of art-making. Specifically, you can expect predominantly architectural and urban sketches, alongside occasional experiments with landscapes and other subjects as my inclination and artistic abilities (do or don’t) allow. These posts will be an accessible way for me to pursue and share my combined interests in the built environment, photography, and art, while allowing me to merge the academic pursuit of architectural and historical knowledge – for me, familiar ground – with the as of yet uncharted waters of creative sketching and painting.
We’ll get right into it here with our first Perspective, which provides a great example of this. Crucially, it is also a perfect inaugural sketch, given that its fairly straightforward rectangular, one-point perspective is well-suited for my amateur-level artistic skills.
In the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, this stately red brick Georgian Revival sits on a prime stretch known as Millionaire’s Row. Built in 1915 by architect Louis Mendel for businessman and philanthropist Nathan Eckstein, the seven-bedroom house boasts numerous noteworthy architectural features, including rich oak and mahogany woodwork, canvas and silk-covered walls, a wine cellar, a ballroom (whaaat), a butler’s pantry with original built-in safe, and three tile fireplaces, one of which was designed by the Louis Comfort Tiffany. It is situated on just shy of a half acre of landscaped lawns and gardens replete with outdoor dining patio and fountain. Classical detailing on the columnated front entry porch is carried over to the south-facing side porch, while the symmetrical facade and gabled roof with pedimented dormers is typical of the Georgian and Colonial Revival styles that were popular across the US in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The overall effect is one of simple but dignified formality.
For anyone who’s curious, the home has been on the market for over a year at an asking price of $7.125 million, which means that even if you can’t afford to buy it, you can still peek inside via the real estate listing. In case that doesn’t satiate your curiosity, you can take a quick tour with the homeowners themselves, courtesy of this local news feature. And for everyone else, I hope that you enjoyed this intro to the new feature and will continue to join me for more architectural insights and (hopefully) progressively competent sketches.